That video has inspired me to try to create my own system. I got a tripod ball head that I think I could use to create a gyrostabilized mount using servos and some form of gyro sensors. Hopefully I can get my hands on some sensors without spending alot of money.

Of course, like everything else I buy, I couldn’t resist cracking it open to see what kind of stuff is in it.  After struggling with the white bezel around the LCD that was double sided taped on, I was able to gain access to the screws to disassemble the frame.  Inside, there’s very few chips.  There appears to be only a CPU chip, a SDRAM chip, and maybe a flash chip.  The CPU seems to be an x86 like chip built by SQ called the SQ812B.  The SDRAM chip is S6416AJTA.  And, unfortunately, I can’t determine what the possible flash chip is as half the chip’s markings are missing.  There’s also a USB port that registers as a mass storage device.  If there’s a way to load custom software on this picture frame, it could be quite a nice little device.

First, the actual chip is a Broadcom BCM4325 Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, which actually does more than just Bluetooth.  It also does wifi and fm receiving.  So is this chip physically wired in a particular way to render all these functions completely useless?  Or is the custom Nike+ interface based on the firmware loaded on the chip?  If this is so, I wonder how hard it would be to find a general firmware for this chip found on another device and reflash the chip in the Touch to allow full access to these other features.  It may even be easier where the interface is built ontop of the firmware loaded on the BCM4325.  I wish I could get my hands on a few devices with this chip as I’d love to see if this is actually possible.

Apple held a special media event today where they released pretty much an entire new iPod line including new Nanos and Touches.  The iPod Nanos are the thinnest iPods ever with a really nice curved glass screen.  They even come in a multitude of colors.  Though, I must say the dark gray aluminum with the black click wheel is my all time favorite iPod design ever.  It even matches my blog!  Then to top it all off, the new Nanos have a built in accelerometer just like the iPhone and iPod Touch.  I must say that this is a really great improvement.

Now for the iPod Touch, it got a few new things.  Not only was it thinned out and curved like its sibblings, it now sports an integrated speaker and Nike+ antenna.  These were unexpected additions to the Touch that are quite nice.  However, I would have liked to seen a built in camera instead of the Nike+ antenna as I think that would serve a larger purpose.  Plus I would have bought one right then and there.  I wonder if there’s a camera accessory for the Touch…

One is based on the way the early Mac OS was built.  Originally, most of the operating system was built inside the ROM on the Mac’s motherboard.  User programs would call functions based in the OS using the m68k’s trap/illegal operation ability which would basically allow you to create ‘custom’ instructions.

The other is based on an older piece of technology meant to fix the original megahertz plateau in the late 1980′s.  It was called the Transputer.  The Transputer processor was a fascinating system that had built in serial links to allow each processor to talk with another.  Coupled with a programming language like Occam, you could easily build a distributed system in a single box.

My idea here is to create a ‘boxed’ distributed system that can be upgraded by just adding more processor cards that contain the basics: the CPU, RAM, and a bit of ROM to boot the processor.  So no more replacing the RAM or the CPU in your computer to make it faster.  With this, you’d just stick in another processor card.  I’ll be posting more details about this project in the coming months.

So far, with some help from others, the serial and JTAG ports have been found which have allowed me to try out customized Linux kernels directly on the hardware.  With this, I’ve also tested the USB device port that has been brought out to the back connector which will eventually allow you to directly connect the Zipit2 to a host computer.  I hope to be able to get back to work on this project soon.